POD 8/12/2017

[brucelucenta]

The 1959 GE TOL washer and dryer were very handsome units. They both did their job quite well. The Filter Flo feature was in full bloom by now and helped to sell their automatic washers for them. The washer was somewhat noisy, but did a good job of washing, rinsing and spinning out the clothes. A neighbor of ours had a 1957 set and I remember watching it when I was a child. The washer outlasted the dryer by several years. I remember them replacing it with a Kenmore dryer and then years later a Kenmore washer with the piano keys of about 1967 or 1968.

 

[frigilux]

Another eye-catching console from GE. 1959 seems to be the year of one-touch automatic cycles. Kenmore and possibly Maytag debuted their automatic cycle buttons in '59, as well.

Questions:

1) At first, I thought the small key to the far left stopped the fill for partial loads, but after much squinting, it appears to say Cold Water Wash. Where is the partial fill button?

2) What is the lever control to the right of the cycle keys?

 

[brucelucenta]

If memory serves me right, I think that there is a small button in the lower right corner that says "water saver" and it starts the wash when you get to the level you want. I think the other knob and the end of the keys is for cold water wash with any of the cycles.

 

[pulltostart]

Bruce is correct.  To use less than a full tub of water, the user pressed the button on the lower right of the console.  However, being a solid tub machine, the filter flo system only worked with a full tub.

 

The lever to the right of the cycle buttons is the suds-saver switch.

 

lawrence

 

[lesto]

My great aunt had the MOL one-speed 59 washer. It had two separate wash cycles: Normal with up to 15 minutes of wash time and the short cycle with a 3 minute wash. The normal cycle had black letters and the short had red letters. There were three white toggle switches: wash temp of hot, warm or cold; rinse temp of warm or cold and the water saver switch. The timer dial was illuminated which, as a kid, I loved. We moved into her house in 1972 after her death and my mom used that washer until about the time I graduated from high school. It lasted nearly 20 years. The tranny went out so it would hardly spin at all. My parents replaced it with a crappy WCI Westinghouse top loader. GE's of that time were noisy during fill and spin but were very quiet when agitating (or as they say in filter-foo land, "activating").

 

[supersuds]

Filter foo land, I like that!

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Handsome looking machines--Pretty in Pink, too!

-- Dave